Ghosts
by eriesalia
Summary: Insanity, Longing, Madness or something else? Saitou muses on some strange things in the RK-verse. One-shot


I see dead people.  
  
No, not the kind that people think I do. Not the ghosts that hover around people.  
  
It started not too long ago. After the shogunate had been put down and the Meiji imperialists had their way.  
  
And the Shinsengumi were punished, betrayed, and killed.  
  
Somehow, I survived.  
  
I, the lone wolf -- with no pack to lead or to follow --joined my enemies, because it was the only place for me in a society that openly distrusted samurai to pursue my code, *our* code.  
  
As a policeman, I was able to observe and when opportune, punish the parasites of society.  
  
And then, I saw them.  
  
Wandering the shadows of Tokyo, I happened to catch a glimpse of the notorious mobster, Kanryuu Takeda. He was a difficult man to locate. He had been so overly concerned for his life and rarely traveled openly. It was not my intention then to kill this elusive person, as I had no interested in staining my blade with the blood of a common crook, but it was important to know everything in Tokyo, including of riff-raff like him.  
  
I remember slipping through the side streets and then feeling a sense of horror as I finally caught a glimpse of the drug lord.  
  
A narrow smiling face. Kanryuusai.... . the man had the same face. And yet it was not the same. I knew that -- and longed to blot his existence out so that Kanryuusai would not be even associated with this same person.  
  
But then, I saw another ghost.  
  
Next to him, the face of Hijikata. The man whose inner demon craved battle. The man whose eyes were as cold as his emotions. It was, I found out later, the face of Aoshi Shinomori.  
  
That same week, I took up smoking.  
  
It was the only way to relieve the anxiety, the thought that perhaps something in me had become slightly unbalanced. Did I long for my old days to the degree that I project their faces on to criminals?  
  
I was not too surprised when sometime later my mind, in its own folly, found Sanosuke Harada wandering about in the form of Sanosuke Sagara. At least this time there was nothing outwardly revolting. Harada was always somewhat of a strange one -- fighting with a spear when the rest of us preferred swords. Sagara had his zanbatou and his fists. And the two seemed equally determined to be as carefree as one could be. Loud. Annoying. And apparently, they both possessed the same sense of wanderlust. The stupid roosterhead took off to Mongolia, just like him.  
  
As the days passed, there were others. At that point, I didn't care as much. I figured that the coincidences that appeared were reminders to me to continue upholding the values of the Shinsengumi.  
  
Until, that is, I ran into another ghost.  
  
A kid.  
  
That's what Okita Souji was before he died a meaningless death.  
  
A kid is what Okita Souji was during the revolution.  
  
Soujiro Seta not only looked like him, but possessed the same skill with the sword. In fact, he even carried the same damn sword!  
  
But, it was then I realized that I wasn't the only one who saw the strange coincidences. The Battousai, or rather Kenshin Himura, did as well. They reportedly had met when Seta had assassinated Lord Okubo. But it wasn't until they met each other in battle, that the Battousai made the connection. Okita and Battousai had crossed swords before... and I'm sure he recognized the resemblance of the style of Seta and later, the sword as well.  
  
It was nothing more than a fleeting glance - one that others who did not know the Battousai well would understand, but I - who had already experience this madness several times - knew what the meaning of that look was.  
  
As I watched the two fight, I felt the corners of my mouth tug slightly up in a smile.  
  
I see dead people.  
  
But so does he.  
  
= = = = = = = =  
  
a/n: A silly piece. Watsuki admits basing his characters off the Shinsengumi. And I thought it was just way too weird that Saitou never noticed it.  
  
Anyways, no one took my hints on the various mailing lists to exploit these weird coincidences. Yes, I read somewhere that Soujiro was given Okita's sword by Shishio. Odd isn't it? I think I'm going to make the Okita=Soujiro allusion quite a bit in the Blades fic. Assuming I ever get to it. 


End file.
